Artist Paul Henschke in the News 1961 - 1978

Local artist Paul Henschke, touching up 
Lorain's Civil War Soldier in Washington Park, 1960

One of the memories that my siblings and I share from the 1960s is the summer that we took art classes on Saturday morning with local artist Paul Henschke. 

I've written about this a few times. At the beginning of the course we met in a classroom at the old St. Mary's High School to work on our drawing. Then we shifted to outdoor sketching at different park locations, including Century Park, Lakeview Park and Washington Park. Mr. Henschke would circulate around the class, checking our progress and offering suggestions. I remember that it was difficult to understand him with his thick German accent.

I still suspect that sending us to the classes was Mom's idea, part of her plan to keep us from being glued to the TV set on Saturday morning, watching cartoons.

Anyway, Mr. Henschke enjoyed a fine career as an artist, and as an instructor for the Lorain Parks Department. He must have had a good agent, because he seemed to be in the Journal with some regularity, in photos showing him instructing students in Lorain or Elyria, or donating paintings. He also wrote the occasional Letter to the Editor, advocating better support of the arts on a local level and promoting park access for children.

Here is a selection of articles featuring Mr. Henschke beginning with the earliest I could find. All are from the Journal unless noted.

August 2, 1961

March 12, 1962

May 25, 1962

May 30, 1963
(Mr. Henschke later crafted a whole new head for the statue in 1965.)

June 21, 1963

Oct. 5, 1963 (Chronicle Telegram)

April 2, 1964

May 29, 1965 (Chronicle-Telegram)

July 31, 1965

March 31, 1966

April 30, 1966

July 22, 1966

August 4, 1966

April 12, 1967

June 26, 1968

October 1, 1968 (That's my younger brother in the middle)

Nov. 7, 1969

Sept. 22, 1970

This 1970 article is my favorite. It includes Mr. Henschke's philosophy of how to stay young, and is a nice look back at his life and career.

October 4, 1970

July 13, 1978

Art School With Paul Henschke – 1968

I mentioned last week how back in the 1960s, my parents conspired to keep my siblings and me busy and away from the TV set, especially on Saturdays. 

On Saturday mornings, we took trumpet lessons with Mr. Visci; on Saturday afternoons, Dad took us fishing.

Somehow we managed to squeeze in bowling in a Saturday morning league at Shoreway Lanes; and – as I mentioned last week – we took also art lessons.

The art lessons were given by well-known local artist Paul Henschke. Some of the lessons involved sketching on location (such as Lakeview Park); other times the lessons were given indoor at St. Mary High School.

The article below, which appeared in the Journal on October 1, 1968, tells the story.

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Youngsters Learn to Be Artists on Saturday Mornings

Both my younger and older brothers made it
into this photograph

Numerous contests and exhibitions in all art medias are planned between students in the art school now being conducted Saturday mornings at St. Mary High School in Lorain.

Paul Henschke is instructor for the classes. He said lectures and practice will be in fine art only because his students, age 8 to 15, are too young to understand abstract art.

The usual sketching and drawing of art classes will be supplemented by practice in the fundamentals of watercolor, pastels, and later for older advanced students, oil painting.

STUDENTS also will study all phases of commercial art such as posters and greeting card design.

Henschke said a trip to the Cleveland Art Gallery is scheduled so the boys and girls can see art masterpieces. He also hopes they will gain “insight of what art really is as a creative form.”

THE ART school is for all students in Lorain, parochial and public, Henschke said. Those who still wish to register may contact him at St. Mary High School.

Classes will continue through May.

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You’ve got to give Mr. Henschke a lot of credit. Teaching fine art to little kids was quite an ambitious undertaking. And he was rather intimidating, especially with his thick foreign accent that was hard for a kid to understand.

I don’t think we stuck with the art lessons very long, because I don’t remember doing any painting or going to the Cleveland Art Museum. Out of my three siblings and me, I was the only one to make art a career. At least it saved me from the burden of being rich.

I posted an article about Mr. Henscke back here, in which I also wrote about the 1968 Summer Art Classes. In the early days of this blog, I did a three-part series on those Summer art classes here, here and here.

 

Paul Henschke Sketches Lorain Landmarks – June 26, 1968

Back when summer vacation was really three months long (instead of ending in the middle of August like it does now), kids often didn’t know what to do with their time. Thus parents often found something for them to do.

One of the things that my parents did for my siblings and me in the summer of 1968 was to sign us up for art classes. These weekly classes sponsored by the Lorain recreation department were taught by well-known local artist Paul Henschke.

But it was much more than just drawing in a supervised environment. Mr. Henschke had a hunch that the Lorain of 1968 was not going to last forever; he knew that the cityscape was going to evolve. Consequently, for many weeks, the class met at various places around Lorain to sketch iconic sites. These included the Lakeview Park fountain and bathhouse; the back of the Broadway Building with its neon bowling sign; the Fire Station facing Washington Park; the Century Park bathhouse; the old City Hall.

Thanks to his foresight, those in his class who saved their drawings have a perfectly preserved view of many of the city’s landmarks from that era, as seen through a child. (I posted many of my drawings from the class in a three-part series that began here.)

Anyway, Mr. Henschke himself made a series of drawings of these very same landmarks. He explains his theory about preserving them through sketches in the article below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on June 26, 1968.

He also makes reference to the art class he taught near the end of the short article.

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I wonder whatever happened to Mr. Henschke’s sketches? It sure would be great to see them all framed and hanging in a row on the walls of Lorain City Hall.

Summer Art Class 1968 Part 3

Here are the last of the sketches from the summer art class.

   For the first sketch, the view is of the bascule bridge and the back of the Broadway Building from Riverside Park. (Remember the Broadway Building's old neon sign, with the animated bowler?) 

   The other sketch is of the old Harbor House building at Century Park at East Erie and Massachusetts. I must have had difficulty drawing trees, because I can see Mr. Henschke's pencil lines all over them.

Summer Art Class 1968 Part 2

Here are a few more sketches from the Lorain summer drawing class that my siblings and I took in the late 1960s. All three of these subjects were in close proximity to each other, since all of them faced Washington Park.

   Lesson 4 was the old City Hall. It's fascinating (to me, at least) because of the civil defense tower rising next to it.

   Lesson 5 was the First Congregational Church. I like the bird walking right above the name.

   Lesson 6 was Fire Station Number One, right next door to the church. I wonder; was there really was a potato-nosed fireman sitting on the porch that day?

Summer Art Class 1968

Around 1968 or so, my parents enrolled my siblings and me in a summer drawing class that ran about 8 weeks. (I don't remember why we signed up; I do remember being upset that the class was going to cause me to miss Wacky Races.)

   The instructor was a local artist named Paul Henschke. The class would meet each week at various parks and sketch Lorain landmarks. A few classes were held indoors at St. Mary's Academy in downtown Lorain, which was interesting and mysterious for Protestants like us.

   I still have my sketches and, despite the fact that they are a kid's doodles, they provide a unique look at Lorain at that time. Lessons 1 and 2 were at Lakeview Park, with the fountain and bathhouse as subjects.

   One of the few things I remember about the class is that my brothers and I had a hard time understanding Mr. Henschke because of his accent. When he asked to borrow your eraser, it sounded like he was asking you for a razor.